A Nightwing in Starling
by A. Summerside
Summary: The Arrow Team receives a visitor from out of town. He is trained, he is mysterious, and they must find out what he is doing in Starling City.
1. Chapter 1

Roy Harper woke with a start. It was the nightmare again. The same one. He was looking down at the man, seeing his broken bloody form, and yet, he could stop himself. Again and again and again his fist came down connecting with the man. His jaw, his stomach, his kidneys. All the vital organs, hit with precision; precision he had been trained. He had used the skills that Oliver had taught him to end another human's life. He _was_ a monster. The mirakuru may have been in his system, but Roy knew that if it had been Oliver, the Green Arrow was too strong of mind to allow a drug to force him to kill and Roy wasn't strong enough. He was a failure.

He glanced at his clock beside the bed, the green lit display showed 4:27. Roy rolled over with a groan. He knew that no matter what he tried, he wasn't going back to sleep. Instead he took a breath and began to slowly extricate himself from the tangle of sweaty sheets and groped the floor for his boxers, sweat pants, and his favourite red hoodie. In the dark, he found one sock and in submission he flicked the light on. The light was harsh; he squinted at the floor of his small bedroom hoping to locate the other sock. Once found, he pulled on his runners and left the small, musty apartment. Once outside, he began with breathing exercises, expanding his lungs, and removing the old air from within, he slowly started to stretch his stiff muscles and loosen his body, preparing it for impact. Complete, he bent to the pavement, took three short deep breaths and lunged forward sprinting.

Roy Harper ran through the Glades in the dark, watching the morning sky lighten, feeling the dew dissipating. He finally reached the Bay and watched the sunrise over the Starling skyline. During the day, the City didn't seem so dark, so poison. It had a brightness to it, a hope that Roy liked. He glanced at his watch again, 5:12. Roy thought he would go past the 'Arrow Cave' to get a head start on his work outs, now that he was warmed up. He jogged towards Verdant in a kind of haze, he would have to tell Oliver that he was having the dream still. It was a matter of safety. If he was distracted, or tired, he wasn't being the partner Green Arrow needed.

He headed down to the bunker taping his hands as he went, and headed for the practice dummy. He stretched his arms over his head and over his body, then grounded his stance. Then from the darkness, higher than expected came a voice.

"So, do I call you 'Red Arrow'?"


	2. Chapter 2

Roy's head spun to the source of the noise. A light drop came from the depth and spoke again,

"You know, this place isn't actually that bad, I was told to expect sticks and stones, but you know what? Your team isn't that behind modern times." Roy lunged at the dark figure emerging from the darkness, but he was gone. "Listen, I'm not here for a fight, I'm here as a curtesy." Roy once again lurched for the missed again,

"How did you find this place?" He asked the stranger.

"Some nutcase in a hood sets up shop in Starling, and you think we don't about it?"

"Who is 'we'?" Roy ventured, trying to pinpoint the location of the intruder.

"My team. Well, not _my_ team, but the team _I_ am apart of." The voice was high up again. Was this a metahuman? Could he fly?

"Why don't you come down and we can talk about this 'curtesy'?" He slowly moved to one of the side compartments of his kit and tried to locate his bow and quiver. He gripped the handle of the bow and slowly brought it out, then tried to find the quiver.

"Are you looking for this?" the voice said right behind him holding his quiver. "You know I _have_ been here for almost 4 hours. I took all your arrows first thing." Roy still bent, whipped around and tried to connect his forearm with the strangers stomach. "Good approach but lacking depth perception." The stranger stood a few inches from where Roy had anticipated. He responded quickly, by jetting out his left leg in a round house kick, the young man before him easily blocked the kick and had Roy on the ground. "Quick reflexes." The young man said appreciatively. Roy used his position on the floor to try to wrangle the man at the waist and trade positions. But the man easily manoeuvred himself so he had the upper hand, and had Roy from behind choking him slightly.

"Who are you?" Roy gasped.

"You didn't honestly think you were the first did you?"

"The first what?" Roy asked still in the hold.

"The first sidekick." The voice answered.

"I am _not_ a sidekick!" Roy answered back.

"Neither was I, but here we are. Now, I am going to loosen my grip on you and let you go. I think we have established that if I wanted to hurt you, I could have already. Like I said, I am here as a curtesy." The man slowly released his hold on Roy and took a small step back. Roy stood and faced his opponent. There stood a man about his age in black kevlar with a bright blue insignia across the chest, in the shape of a bird.

"Who are you?" Roy repeated.

"Um, Dude," The man answered gesturing to his face, "mask."

"Oh, right."

"Totally messing with you bro, well not really, it's not like I would tell you my secret identity or anything, but while I'm here I may as well give you a name. I'm Nightwing."

"Nightwing? Where did that come from, the Disney channel?"

"No actually, that would be my other secret identity. I'm living a double life as pop star." He joked back.

The man was well built. To say well built was a huge understatement. He was sculpted. With black hair that went in every direction, slightly tanned skin and a black domino mask across his face. He had a bright care-free smile and strong confident stance.

"Well, 'Nightwing', what can I do for you?" Roy asked smiling back.

"You could tell Oliver Queen to meet us here, I need to speak with him." The man answered back, the smile still present on his face. Meanwhile all the blood from Roy's face vanished, he starred at the man in front of him.

"Um… who?" He feigned.

"You know, the most eligible bachelor in Starling, had his picture on the cover of every magazine in the country at one point or another, used to be the richest man in Starling City. Oh, and the guy who dresses up as Green Arrow and fights crime as a vigilante and is currently living with his sister in a loft on the East side. You know who I'm talking about?"

"Oh, yeah, _that_ Oliver Queen." Roy said. He looked across the room at his phone lying on the desk, "I'm just going to grab my phone, so don't jump me or anything."

"Dude, like I said, I am not here to hurt you, and let's be honest, If I were to jump you, it wouldn't end well."

Roy pressed the emergency code on his phone, connecting all the team members.

"Do you want it on speaker phone? or…"

"Roy, I don't care what you say to Oliver, I trust that you can get him here, and if you desire, also Miss Felicity Smoke, and Mr. John Diggle." the smile was back, who was this guy?

"Roy," came Oliver's immediate reply.

"What's going on?" Came Diggle's voice over the line.

"Do any of you know what time it is?" Felicity's sleepy voice cracked into the conversation.

"Um, guys, we have a visitor. At the 'Arrow Cave'."


	3. Chapter 3

"The 'Arrow Cave'? That's what you're going with? It doesn't even make sense!" Nightwing threw his hands in the air. After a pause, he was laughing.

"What?" Roy asked.

"The Arrow Cave, I know someone who is going to _love_ that!"

"We don't call it that! It was a joke, a mistake, then a joke." Roy insisted, feeling uncomfortable.

"That's the least of your worries, I think there may be a law suit in there somewhere! 'Arrow Cave'…to the 'Arrow Cave!'" Nightwing was still laughing wildly and putting on a deeper more gravelly voice. "Tell me you don't have an 'Arrowmobile'?" He asked.

"Why does everyone ask that? What does that even mean? And We normally just use the bikes, not cars"

"Oh, no one is going to believe this. This is incredible. I need to be taking mental notes of this." Nightwing seemed to be talking to himself.

"Taking mental notes of what?" Came a voice from the stairs, Oliver had arrived.


	4. Chapter 4

At that moment, it seemed a transformation happened immediately to Nightwing, gone was the jovial persona, and in its place, a studied, attentive lethal weapon of calculated destruction.

"Oliver Queen, Green Arrow, my name is Nightwing, I come from Gotham. I am here as a curtesy. I have an operation that has lead me here to Starling, and I wanted to let you know that I will be in your city until the operation is complete. I will endeavour to not hinder you or your team, during my stay, my only request is that you stay out of my way." The crisp introduction reminded Roy of a learned behaviour, so different from the man _he_ had encountered.

"Gotham?" Oliver started, "You have an operation in Gotham? And you know my name?" He looked to Roy who nodded.

"You seriously thought we wouldn't figure it out?" replied Nightwing maintaining his cool demeanour as he looked over Oliver.

"I wasn't aware that Gotham had… masks." Oliver nodded to his suit.

"We like to keep it that way." came the reply.

"Roy, did you stop that mugging on your way home, last night?" Oliver asked nonchalantly. This was one of their codes, Oliver was asking if this was friend or foe, and to be honest, Roy didn't know.

"Umm, two attackers, victim received a stab wound, but got him to a hospital." Roy responded. Two attackers, unclear which side this vigilante was, Stab wound, a dangerous person, hospital, could be helpful.

"Roy… two rivers!" Oliver called. They both leapt to action charging the spot the vigilante stood. In a flash, he had released a grappling hook onto one of the rafters of the basement with perfect precision. He then hoisted himself into the air and took flight. Once he had evaded them, he perched on one of the rafters and spoke,

"Your code sucks. This was a curtesy, stay out of my way, or I will not be so polite." He threw a smoke bomb below and when the air cleared, he was gone.

"Roy, what the hell happened?" Oliver growled.


	5. Chapter 5

"He was in here!" Felicity reiterated for the thousandth time. "He could have killed Roy! He knew your identity!"

"He knew yours too." said Roy from the corner with his arms crossed.

"Oh, God!" Felicity looked at Oliver.

"Roy, not helping." Oliver walked over to Felicity and placed a reassuring hand on her arm. "Felicity, you _are_ safe. We _will_ catch this guy. I promise"

"I'm not worried about me, I'm worried about all of us!"

"Felicity, Oliver, I don't think he is that dangerous." Roy ventured.

"What do you mean Roy?" Diggle asked all eyes staring at him widely.

"We talked beforehand. He seemed, good. He was trained, no doubt about that, He was so much better than me, but even as we were fighting, he was coaching me. Oliver he could have killed me, Felicity is right. But he didn't."

"You talked beforehand?" Oliver asked, "Felicity bring up the security cameras for that time."

"Already on it," She flew to the computer and with lightning speed was accessing the basements security feeds. "Oliver, the security cameras were tampered with."

"Can't you access it?"

"Give me a moment, he also hacked into all of our files."

"Yeah, he said he had already been here for 4 hours, before I got in." said Roy.

"Roy, I need you to remember everything he said." Oliver looked to Roy.

"Umm, I was a little preoccupied with him not killing me. But he said something about me not being the first sidekick. Not that I'm your sidekick."

"Gotham City, sidekick… Felicity what can you bring up on vigilantes in Gotham City?"

"Hang on, I can only do 8 things at once… Got it. He copied our entire hard drive with everything on it, including a tracer virus I installed that when plugged into another computer we will be able to pinpoint the location. The Camera files, I cannot access, It looked like he just tampered with the cameras, but he wiped the entire security feed while he was here."

"What about the vigilante in Gotham?" Oliver asked.

"Do you want to trade places? You can do this job and I can go around shooting arrows at people? Oh, wait, you wouldn't know what to do with this system!" Felicity snapped back at him. Oliver blushed slightly,

"You're right, I was out of line, I apologise."

"You don't think I want to catch him too? That I want to look in his eyes and tell him—

Got it. The only mention of vigilantism in Gotham City is an Urban legend, 'The Batman'. No one has ever seen him, there is no record of him in any of the computerised Police files, but there have been reports of known criminals being brought to justice with the evidence required to arrest them and put them away for a very long time… The Meroni Crime family… Wow, this does seem to be a _someone,_ a vigilante of some kind, but there is no proof. It could be a lot of someones. Nightwing could be a Batman."

"He said his name is Nightwing though, if he were a Batman, wouldn't he just say it?" Asked Roy.

"Whoever he is, my next concern is that he is here on an operation. Chances are he is here to kill someone. So today we have to try to figure out what his operation is." Oliver interjected.

"Correction, you guys need to try to figure out what his operation is. Some of us still have a job to do." Felicity reached for her bag and coat and headed out to the stairs.

"He said to not get in his way, Oliver" Roy warned.

"Yeah, Roy because listening to crazy men in masks is always a good philosophy for life."

"He said something similar about you."


End file.
